The present invention relates to a recording/reproducing apparatus and a method of detecting the state of such a apparatus by first measuring the internal state thereof, then detecting any fault or trouble state on the basis of trouble decision data, and transmitting the result of such detection to an external device.
There is known the technology of recording various data inclusive of music data in a removable disk and storing such data therein. For example, the removable disks may be a magnetic disk such as floppy disk, an optical disk such as CD (compact disk) or DVD (digital versatile disk), a magneto-optical disk such as MO (magneto-optical) disk or MD (mini disk), or a semiconductor memory.
An MD drive for recording data in and/or reproducing the same from an MD is incorporated in an MD component stereo, or is connected to a personal computer or the like for use, or is employed in a music distribution system or the like where the drive is supplied with contents data distributed from a host computer via a network.
Since a removable disk recording/reproducing apparatus such as an MD drive has a complicated internal structure, it is not furnished with technology of detecting any abnormal state or predicting the service life of its component part until occurrence of some trouble observable obviously from outside, and in most cases the cause of any induced trouble is not recognizable by a user.
In an MD drive, an optical block for recording contents data in an MD is equipped with a laser diode. It has been general heretofore that the service life of a laser diode in particular is hardly predictable as it is rendered remarkably different depending on the frequency of use or environment of installation. For this reason, it is customary in most cases that the user inquires of a maintenance center, for example, of the MD drive manufacturer after actual occurrence of any problem in the recording or reproduction of data upon expiration of the service life of the laser diode, and then the necessary action of replacing the part or the like is carried out.
Therefore, in order to prevent depreciation of the reliability in recording the contents data by a semiconductor laser, there is no other remedy, in view of ensuring safety in the present circumstances, than replacement of the semiconductor laser in a stage earlier than expiration of the actual service life thereof, hence raising another problem that increases the cost of the component parts.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improvements in a data recording/reproducing apparatus such as an MD drive for example, wherein various data to be used for maintenance are measured, and parameters required for analysis of the maintenance data are recorded previously in the MD drive so as to realize prediction of the service life of a semiconductor laser and detection of occurrence of any trouble that may be derived therefrom. In the data recording/reproducing apparatus of the present invention where data are recorded in and reproduced from a recording medium, the internal state of the apparatus is measured, and any abnormal state in the apparatus is detected on the basis of abnormal state decision data, and then the detected state is transmitted to an external device.
According to a one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording/reproducing apparatus for recording data in a recording medium and/or reproducing the recorded data therefrom. The apparatus comprises a means for measuring first data relative to the recording/reproducing apparatus; a first memory means for storing second data to make a decision as to an abnormal state of the measured first data; a means for generating third data relative to maintenance of the recording/reproducing apparatus on the basis of the first and second data; and an output means for delivering the third data as an output.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of detecting the internal state of a recording/reproducing apparatus which records data in a recording medium and/or reproduces the data therefrom. The method comprises the steps of measuring, as first data, the internal state of the recording/reproducing apparatus; acquiring second data from a memory for detecting that the first data indicate an abnormal value; generating, from the first and second data, third data relative to maintenance of the recording/reproducing apparatus; and delivering the third data as an output from the recording/reproducing apparatus.
And according to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording/reproducing apparatus for recording data in a recording medium and/or reproducing the recorded data therefrom. This apparatus comprises a means for measuring first data that indicate the state of the recording/reproducing apparatus; a first memory means for storing second data to make a decision as to any abnormal state of the recording/reproducing apparatus; and an output means for delivering the first and second data as an output to another information processor.
The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which will be given with reference to the illustrative accompanying drawings.